Marissa wasn’t entirely sure why she was taking Defense Against the Dark Arts. She didn’t plan on pursuing it when she graduated from Rocky Mountain International – she didn’t want to be an Auror or Cursebreaker or anything – and the subject didn’t particularly interest her either. It wasn’t super easy, but it wasn’t hard. It was a nice, middle, average subject. Maybe that’s why she was taking it. It was easy enough for her to catch on to, and she wasn’t too worried about being challenged. The prospect of an independent research project sucked, though. Since she didn’t have much she wanted to do with Defense, she didn’t really know what she wanted to do a project on.

Now that colleges were starting to accept her here and there, she could think a little more about what she wanted to do. This really led to her thinking about what she didn’t want to do. The Muggle options were a little limited, since there would be math and stuff. She’d applied to a couple of liberal arts colleges, but they’d have required core courses. How embarrassing would it be to have to take an algebra class with basically no knowledge of anything past fifth grade math? She still wanted to go to school with Rose, but she’d started really liking the sound of Francine’s school in California. If Holland got into CalTech and decided to go, Marissa was almost positive she could convince them to live with her.

As far as careers went, Marissa really didn’t know what to do about that. Garen thought she’d be a good counselor. The Aquila thought that that was a lot of work, lots of school, and she wasn’t smart enough for that. She didn’t want to do anything research heavy, but she didn’t want to do anything boring. She’d spent a bit of time at Peregrine over midterm, wasted for most of it, but she’d gotten to have lots of good chats with her mom’s friend Lia. Marissa pretty much idolized her at this point; she had the dream career. Lia had suggested majoring in business and making everything else up as she went, since that’s what the former Lyra had done. It didn’t seem like a bad idea, and everywhere, Muggle or magical, had to have some kind of business major, right?

The red head waved hi to her aunt and then sat in the very back of the classroom. Aunt Cindra was great, but she certainly wasn’t a professor type, and Marissa liked to keep some distance between them in classes whenever she could. It felt healthy that way. One of the very few perks to college Marissa could think of was not being surrounded by family. She loved them so, so much, but it would be nice to see what she’d be able to do on her own.

Marissa knew her boggart must have changed from when she was younger. A dragon had come out of the chest, and she’d been pretty equipped to handle it. When she was super little, she’d watched Sleeping Beauty and the part where Maleficent turned into a dragon terrified her. She crawled and hid behind the couch until someone realized she was serious and turned it off. By third year, it was still what she was scared of most, but having Aunt Jessie in the family made it much easier to handle. Now, Marissa wasn’t scared of dragons.

So what was she scared of that a boggart could be?

There were some interesting changes in boggarts with her friends. The matching boggarts that Holland and Danny had – well, bless, that was adorable. Marissa made eye contact with both of them at some point between their turns and raised her eyebrows teasingly. It really was lucky that she felt so proud of their relationship. Otherwise how much they already liked each other would have really, really sucked.

Eventually, it was Marissa’s turn, and she took a deep breath. Maybe it would be a pile of rejection letters or something like that. She could turn the letters into confetti, then. It wasn’t necessarily funny, but it was festive. She raised her wand in anticipation. When the cobra-turned-slinky left from the last participant changed into Rose in front of her, Marissa’s freckled brow furrowed in confusion. That’s definitely not a dragon.

Then the boggart immediately changed. This time, Fake Holland stood before the class again, but this one looked more like the current Holland than an older one. “Why would anyone want to live with you? We don’t need you here.”

It changed again. It switched from Garen, to her mom, to her dad, all echoing the same sentiment of Marissa being such a disappointment. Danny and Russell, Kit and Drew, they appeared at some point too, but Marissa had already lost track of the truths they must have said. How was she supposed to make a boggart seem funny when her worst fear seemed to just be the truth? She knew no one was going to need her once they graduated; it’s why she was fighting so hard to live with both of her best friends. That way, they might not forget her right away. And her family being disappointed… well, that was probably just inevitable.

“Excuse me,” Marissa cleared her throat and lowering her wand, keeping it in her hand instead of pocketing it in her jean shorts, before stepping away from the boggart and to the very back of the room. She usually didn’t mind having eyes on her, but right now, she really wanted everyone to stop staring. She started out standing in the furthest corner she could find, and eventually slid down into a sitting position. The redhead pulled her yellow hoodie a little tighter to her and stared down at her black shoes with cute little sunflowers decorating the canvas. That freaking sucked.

Someone, at some point this term, had shown Cindra Embers something magical. She’d had no idea that Defense Against the Dark Arts had an actual curriculum! It laid out everything that her students,... more

Defense Against the Dark Arts was one of those classes that Bryn was taking because he was bored. It was more interesting then History of Magic by far and he figured that it was more practical as... more

It didn’t take long for Marissa to place the voice. She’d honestly expected someone else - maybe Rose or Danny or Holland - to come check on her. Her heart sunk slightly when she realized it wasn’t... more

It was time for Defense Against the Dark Arts, which Dade no longer had with Connor, which was about the nicest thing he could say about the class. It was run by Kit’s aunt, who was weird and lame,... more

Professor Embers was okay. Claudia knew that a lot of the other students didn’t like her, and it was true that her teaching was sporadic at best, but she was far more approachable than many of the... more

It was Claudia walking down the hall, trying to talk to him like they were friends still. They weren’t friends still. She was Connor’s friend, not Dade’s friend. “Go. away.” Dade said through gritted ... more

Dade’s habitual rudeness as he told her to go away grated less on Claudia than usual. She was still incensed by his audacity to speak to anyone like that - he’d had the same upbringing as Connor; how ... more

Despite the constant malfunctioning of the school, it had been a quiet time for Shifty at Rocky Mountain International. He felt almost disappointed that so much mayhem was caused by someone other... more

Teal Rosse didn’t want to deal with a boggart. Teal didn’t know what her worst fear was, but she sure did not want to find out in front of most of the school. What could her boggart be? Bees? Bees... more

As the STOATs got closer, Remington spent more time studying for them. It seemed a little silly, since her grades were nearly perfect already, but her place in upper year classes was dependent upon... more

Despite being frightened by the boggart, Teal wanted to pretend she wasn’t. That was okay; Remington wouldn’t make her admit to things she didn’t want to say. Her best friend was Dade Farnon. The... more

Holland already knew what their boggart was. It had been one of the more high-concept fears in the beginner’s class. Everyone who had been in present for the lesson in second year probably remembered ... more

Despite Marissa’s reassurances way back in September, enough had happened since to distract him that he had only recently come to terms with how the descriptor gay was applicable to him. He certainly ... more

Holland stared at Russell, unsure of how to respond. He obviously hadn’t understood what they were saying, the way straight people usually didn’t understand when you made a joke about not being... more

Russell was vaguely aware of a voice. Although his attention was still far too occupied with the oppressive heat around him to register who the voice belonged to, he was able to recognize that it was ... more

When Russell returned, he sat down on the floor like a Jenga tower collapsing. Holland stared at the younger student, slightly alarmed. Was Russell shaking? He looked genuinely frightened. Holland... more

The only reason Ruben had continued on in taking Defense Against the Dark Arts in past years was because Ivy Rasnick was both hot and capable of skimming over the defense bit in the class's name, at... more

Really the last thing Danny needed right now was for Ruben to taunt him, but the Lyra realized this was, in fact, inevitable. Although, actually, maybe mockery from his nemesis-turned-unlikely-friend ... more

Ruben’s smirk broadened, and he brushed off Danny’s thanks with an airy wave. “Nej, nej, you deserved it.” He watched with blatant satisfaction as the darker-haired student (and much shorter-haired,... more

Wait did Ruben think he was serious? He had only been dating Holland for - it had to be less than five months. Definitely not long enough for anything like… like that . If they had been engaging in... more

Ruben experienced a mild but undeniable surge of relief at the denial. (In addition to this came a less mild and absolutely not necessary to deny surge of humour at the mental image of Emmett in... more

“It’s only a mind-game that a Boggart takes out of your head,” Ruben countered. There wasn’t much known about boggarts, or the type of magic that enabled the creature to access a person’s fears. If a ... more